


To Tamaran

by Lothlorienx



Category: DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, F/F, Science Fiction, scifi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-27
Updated: 2016-03-24
Packaged: 2018-05-23 11:22:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6114936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lothlorienx/pseuds/Lothlorienx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>SciFi AU work for Flygon Rider. Koriand'r and Barbara Gordon make their way towards Tamaran, Koriand'r to resume power as the princess and Barbara to be a part of her royal guard. But on their way to Tamaran, they are attacked.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FlygonRider](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlygonRider/gifts).



Barbara held the escrima staff in her palm, fingers uncurled around the metal as if she were too afraid to touch it. She balanced it on her hand, taking in the weapon slowly and carefully, eyes making their way from one side of the staff to the other and then back again.

Eventually, she made her fingers curl around it. She gripped it in her fist, testing the weight of it with a couple of twirls before focusing her attention back to the alien in front of her. 

Her back was to her, and she appeared to be indifferent to everything. Barbara took a couple steps towards her, her footsteps echoing on the metal and stone floor. Koriand’r stood at an impressive six feet tall, making Barbara feel so tiny and insignificant in comparison. Bright red hair cascaded down her back, and her orange skin was glowing in both starlight and electric light. Her green eyes were glowing bright as she scanned the starry horizon in front of them.

Barbara had been so focused on the escrima staff she’d been given to even look out the window. 

The stars were all alien to her; not a single constellation or formation that she could name. But it did look somewhat familiar, in a strange way. Like the faces you see in dreams, almost.

“We have almost reached Tamaran,” Koriand’r told her. Her voice sounded far off and dreamy.

She’d missed Tamaran, her home world. Too often she would dream of her home planet, of the sky purple and blue above her, and the gray dust beneath her feet, and the familiar towers of her castle-like house stretching above her head for what seemed like miles. She missed flying over the rivers and lakes, with their water churning…always churning…and the scaly birds that sometimes accompanied her on her flights. She missed Galfor and Ryand’r. 

She almost missed Komand’r. Almost.

Whenever Koriand’r found herself becoming spiteful towards her, even in her thoughts, she would remind herself that they were sisters, after all. They were sisters, they had a bond that was almost sacred in the eyes of Tamaran, and she needed to forgive her. She shouldn’t be hateful towards Komand’r, she would always remind herself.

“How much longer?” Barbara asked. “Before we get there, that is?”

Koriand’r thought for a moment. “Another hour perhaps. We are close, so our journey shouldn’t be of much more length.”

Barbara nodded, though she only half understood. She scanned the stars outside the window again, trying to commit them to memory. She tried making constellations out of a couple of them, but they didn’t take. She needed something much more solid and a longer time before she could recognize these stars. 

She spied a small cluster of stars that looked somewhat unique. Thinking that that formation would be easy enough to distinguish, she named that one a constellation. ‘The Egg,’ she called it in her head. 

“Have you ever been to Tamaran?” Koriand’r asked Barbara, turning her head to look down at her.

Barbara shook her head. “No. But I’ve read about it, in some of the archives back on Earth,” she replied. “Tamaran’s supposed to be roughly the size of Saturn, with rings that are almost impossible to see, and gravity that is much denser. Way too dense…”

She trailed off, thinking of how much weight might be pushing down on her once they landed. Barbara was strong, no doubt. She trained for years as a Bat, and even before that her ballet and gymnastics. She was tough and muscular and able to hold her own in a fight, but she was nervous about Tamaran’s gravity nonetheless. It was one thing to deadlift two hundred pounds, it was another to have to walk around all day and night with it pressing down on you from all sides.

“Do not worry,” Koriand’r said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “You will be fine, my friend.”

Barbara nodded.

“The drinking water tastes weird too, doesn’t it?” Barbara asked, after a pause in their conversation.

“Earth water tastes weird, and yet you are accustomed to drinking that liquid,” she replied. Barbara took that as a yes. She internally cringed, wondering just what things would be like there on Tamaran. Her nerves were frayed with all that thinking.

Not only with the thinking but with the ride itself. They’d been in space for three days, making their way to Tamaran, and Barbara found herself becoming sick with motion and worry. Would she like Tamaran? How long before she grew to like it? How long would she have to stay on that planet?

She knew she could have quit at any time, leave Princess Koriand’r’s elite guard and travel back home to Earth, but she knew that it wouldn’t exactly be simple to do so. Koriand’r wouldn’t hold a grudge against her, but she would bat her eyelashes and give her kitten eyes and that would make Barbara feel too guilty to want to leave.

Please let Tamaran be good, Barbara thought silently.

She looked back down at the escrima staff, still clutched in her fist. With a sigh, she rested the base up against the stone floor, and leaned some of her weight on it. She felt tired. So tired. And only a long, long sleep would cure it. It wasn’t the new life ahead of her, or the old one behind her, or the disquieting spaceship she was aboard. Nothing more than exhaustion set deep within her bones and blood.

“Koriand’r?” Barbara asked.

The alien turned her head, eyes resting on her. Barbara blushed, unable to maintain eye contact. She looked out at the stars again, but she still felt Koriand’r’s eyes on her. 

“May I be excused?” she asked.

“Absolutely,” Koriand’r replied, a huge grin on her face.

Barbara nodded once at her, her blush nearly covering her entire face and neck, and walked away from her. The mechanical door slid open and shut behind her, leaving Koriand’r standing in the helm with only two navigators; one a Green Lantern, the other another earthling just like her.

Barbara breathed out a sigh of relief and pulled the bat mask free from her face. She ran a gloved hand over her skin, sweeping back her bright red hair. Closing her eyes for a moment, she leaned back up against the metal door, taking a few peaceful breaths. 

It couldn’t last long, she knew. But just a second or two of sliding down to a sitting position, closing your eyes and leaning your head back, and letting yourself relax was better than nothing.

It didn’t last long, as she expected. But for an entirely different reason.

The alarm started shrieking, bright red light piercing through the darkness of her closed eyes. Barbara jumped up, pulling her bat mask back over her face. She gripped her escrima staff and pounded open the metal door, striding back in to see Koriand’r completely distressed.

“What’s happening?” Barbara yelled over the sirens.

It was a Green Lantern who answered her. “Laser fire,” he answered. “It struck the ship. We’ve sent out a couple of Lanterns to put up a shield, but other than that, we can’t really do anything.” He paused. 

Barbara walked over to him, looking over his shoulder at the monitors and screens, lit up with stars and distant comets drifting lazily in their belts. 

“What hit us?” Barbara asked.

“Laser fire,” the Green Lantern said again. “But other than that, we don’t know. We haven’t seen any ships or fighters or rockets or…anything! We don’t know what’s come for us.”

“So you do indeed think that someone has come for us?” Koriand’r asked him. 

She stood behind both Barbara and Green Lantern, her eyes wide and her muscles taut. Her jaw was clenched, and she didn’t notice until her teeth scraped painfully against each other. That only made her angry; she slammed her fist down on the metal controls, leaving a deep dent in the panels.

“Find them!” she demanded. “I will not tolerate this attack!”

“Yes, Princess,” they both responded.

But they soon found that they needn’t look for them, for the attackers found them instead. The ship was struck again, and Green Lantern frantically searched the cosmos for their phantom ship again and again. Another loud blast sounded, and the whole ship was jarred, making all passengers grunt as they were thrown to the side.

An awful sound of metal grating on metal rang in Barbara’s ears, and it took her a long time to register what was happening. Opening her eyes, she crept towards the windows, and saw that the alien ship, now visible, had barred up against their own and long metal claws were tearing apart the ship’s hull. Barbara watched, horrorstruck, as a mass of Gordainians running from the extension and onto their own ship.

Barbara grasped her escrima staff in her fists, and pulled herself to her feet. The staff turned on, sparks of blue electricity sizzling at the ends of the metal. 

“Don’t worry, Princess,” Barbara called out to Koriand’r as she ran towards the attackers. “I will stop them.”

She hadn’t any doubt in her head that she could, but the closer she got, the more a doubt seemed to be forming in her mind. The first Gordainians started striking out at her, and Barbara struck hard with the staff. A scream tore from the throat of one of them as the electricity ran through their entire body. By the crunch that Barbara heard when they collapsed to the ground, Barbara was willing to bet that she had cracked a few ribs.

…If these creatures even had ribs.

Had Koriand’r told her anything about the Gordainians, besides the fact that they would possibly attack? Only that they were horrible, evil beasts, unworthy of sympathy, mercy, or pity. Besides that, nothing.

Barbara swung the escrima staff, striking another one in their head. Bolts of electricity ran through them and they too collapsed to the ground, almost unconscious. 

Barbara struck Gordainian after Gordainian, but they kept coming, waves of twos and threes and fours. Barbara was starting to become overwhelmed. No matter how many blows she could deliver to their green bodies, or bow much electricity seemed to be jolting them, there was always more. If one fell, then three more were there to take their place.

Green Lantern’s power saved her before a Gordainian could drive a three-pronged spear through her body.

“How many are there, kid?” he asked her.

“No idea,” she replied.

They were slowly being forced back. They fought, hard. Barbara and the Green Lanterns and the few Tamaranian escorts aboard, all with brandished spears and starbolts, but in the end the Gordainians were conquering them. She hated to admit it, but they were overpowered.

Barbara felt the cold touch of steel against her back, and she realized that she was cornered. She ducked just as a spear tore through the metal above her head, slicing open the wall that she was pressed up against. The spear slicing through the control panel, the buttons shattered and the wires dangerously sparking. The doors opened behind her completely, and Barbara backed herself up into the room.

She kicked the interior buttons with her foot, for they were somewhat whole. The doors gave a few pathetic lurches on their tracks and then stilled completely. Barbara gripped her staff harder.

“Is she the Princess?” Barbara heard one of them ask.

“Red hair…is wearing a cloak…I see only her…” one of them replied.

“Then she must be it!” another one chimed in.

Five Gordainians descended down upon her, all of them attacking at once. Barbara felt her feet give out beneath her, felt her staff pulled from her hands, and then being bound. The Gordainians had her, and they were pulling her back to their ship.

“We have her!” she heard someone yelling, far off in the distance. “Retreat!”

Faster than Barbara could make sense of, she was being pulled away, onto the Gordainians ship, and away from those she was supposed to fight beside and protect. She kicked and bit, and a few of the Gordainians howled out in pain. She reached for her staff, only for it to be used against her. The blue electricity ran through her body, and the world around her went dark.


	2. Chapter 2

When she awoke, she was on her knees, wrists bound behind her back. Her senses immediately sharpened when she remembered what had happened, adrenaline coursing through her, ready to run and fight if need be. 

She looked around, quickly taking in her setting as she had been taught to do. A grand room, large around her, with many windows to look out at the cosmos with. Many Gordainians were in the room, lining up quietly and still along the walls, each holding a three-pronged staff in their hands. 

In the center of the room was a chair, molding from the metal itself, seamlessly morphing from the floor and into a seat. In the chair sat, what was no doubt, the head leader. On their head they were a large hat, no doubt for intimidation and superiority. But, since they were facing away from Barbara, there was not much else she could see.

Beside her was Koriand’r.

No! Barbara thought in a panic. I should have protected her! She shouldn’t be here! 

Shame filled her. She had failed to keep the Princess safe. Some guard she turned out to be. Her official career had yet to even begin, and already she had failed. The Princess was in the clutches of her enemies, no doubt to be sold as a slave…or worse. Barbara hoped that the Gordainians weren’t fond of scientific experiments.

“They are both awake,” said on of the Gordainians.

The one in the high chair got up from their seat and walked around to face the both of them. As they rose, another one took their place on the chair, quickly putting their hands on the arm rests. Barbara felt the ship propel forward, unaware that it had even stilled. So that was how they controlled the ship. She filed that information away for future reference.

“So…I will be direct,” said the Gordainian, crossing their arms behind their back. “Which one of you is Koriand’r, the Princess of Tamaran?”

They don’t know?! Barbara thought incredulously. How can they not know? 

Her thoughts returned to what they had said back on the ship. Red hair and was wearing a cloak. She matched that description. Now that her bat mask was off (no doubt having been ripped off and confiscated), her fiery orange hair spilled out around her face, mussed from fighting and sleep. She still wore her cat, long and black, spilling down around her, the edges scalloped to look like the ends of bat wings.

Barbara was working out how to use this information to her leverage.

“Which one of you is Koriand’r, the Princess of Tamaran?” the Gordainian repeated, agitation seeping into their voice. Barbara pursed her lips together, not wanting to tell them anything. Not until she had figured out a plan. Her mind spun, faster and faster, trying to make some kind of escape plan out of the little information that she knew.

But she never got the chance.

Koriand’r spoke up: “It is I, myself. I am Princess Koriand’r of Tamaran. Take me as prisoner, I am of value. She is of no use to you, let her go.”

Barbara shot daggers at her with her eyes. But Koriand’r didn’t see it. 

“She lies!” Barbara blurted out, trying to backtrack her statement. “She lies to protect me, as any true guard would! I am Koriand’r!”

Now it was Koriand’r’s turn to shoot daggers. Barbara looked away from her, unable to stand the glare.

The head Gordainian walked closer to both of them. Barbara fought the urge to lean back away from them, but she still flinched when their feet came far too close to them. She saw, from the corner of her eye, that Koriand’r made no the slightest inclination that she was bothered.

“Gremba,” Barbara heard one of the guards say, “if it makes any difference, the Princess is said to have green eyes.”

The Gordainian–Gremba, apparently–leaned down to look them both at eye level. Barbara was wholly disgusted by being so close to one of them. There was malice in her eyes. She had heard the stories Koriand’r told about them, and about what they had done to her and the rest of her people. They were slavers, colonizers, torturers, and so much more.

If those stories were to be believed.

And Barbara believed them all.

“They both have green eyes,” Gremba said after looking at them both. They stood straight up against, towering over the two of them. Red hair. Green eyes. Both wore a cloak. “Anything else?” Gremba asked to the rest of the room.

No one said anything.

“Well, jail them both for now, until we can tell which one is which.”

“Yes!” the Gordainians shouted, and pulled both her and Koriand’r away from the room.


	3. Chapter 3

“Why do you not wish for them to know who is whom?” Koriand’r asked her, after the Gordainians had locked them in their cell. 

Barbara paced the floor, running her now-ungloved hands through her bright orange hair in attempt to keep it out of her eyes. Her green eyes that had confused them. Koriand’r’s eyes were far greener than hers; how they had not seen how obvious it was, she didn’t know. But she hoped that they were ignorant, as she could use that to her advantage. If they couldn’t see whose eyes were greener, then maybe they were naïve enough to make other crucial mistakes.

“Why do you not answer my question, my friend?” Koriand’r asked when she got no answer.

Barbara looked up at her, looking at her but not really seeing her. She saw the shape of her, the colors that made her, but she couldn’t really see her herself. 

“Their ignorance is our bliss,” she simply replied.

“Is that another Earth proverb?” Koriand’r asked with a tilt of her head.

“Yeah, I guess,” Barbara said, and began pacing the floor again. 

Koriand’r didn’t say anything more, but merely sat, her hands unbound in front of her, a chain of alien metal around her ankle. But only one ankle. Barbara had one too, and it clanked every time she moved. It rattled as she paced, but Koriand’r did not care. She was more worried about the stress radiating off of her friend, coming at her in invisible waves. 

With a sigh, she stood up at last, and put a hand on Barbara’s shoulder. 

Barbara stopped pacing and looked over at Koriand’r, but she found she couldn’t maintain eye contact. She still felt shame for having failed to protect her, and it kept her from even be able to be close to her without a withering feeling in her chest. So she looked away, her eyes darting down and her head drooping.

Koriand’r put a hand under her chin, lifting her eyes to hers.

“Do not be in distress,” Koriand’r told her, “for we shall soon find a way out of this.”

Barbara’s lip quivered, and Koriand’r placed her thumb on her lower lip to steady it. Barbara’s heart started pounding, and she found that now she couldn’t look away from her eyes. All emotion stilled inside of her, and she didn’t feel shame anymore. It vanished from her completely as Koriand’r slid her thumb across her lip and then pat her cheek, gently, once, and then turned to the metal door that stood between them and freedom.

“Korobandan metal,” Koriand’r said, stepping forward and placing her palms on the door. “An immense amount of strong, but I do so believe I may be able to create weakness upon it.”

Barbara could only hope so.

The thought of being in the Gordainians’ claws made her want to scream. Shivers ran up her back, and not in a good way. It gave her headaches with the amount of adrenaline it gave her, wanting so badly to fight and run away, but being pent up in the cramped cell and unable to do anything but pace and pace and pace, the metal cuff upon her ankle clanging and clanking as she walked.

Koriand’r screeched, her very voice seeming to tear at the metal walls, and she slammed both of her fists against the door. Barbara backed away from her, suddenly frightened. Koriand’r screeched again, and it seemed like the metal turned to shards around Barbara and was now scratching at the insides of her ears. Koriand’r slammed her fists on the metal door, again and again, green bolts at the edges of her fingers.

She lit her fist up with her green powers, making the dark cell glow with her light, and releasing yet another feral scream that grating up against the air, she punched the door, the green of her powers flying back from her fists and catching on her hair and skin.

“Kori…” Barbara whispered.

Another scream, another few punches. The metal was staring to dent…or so Barbara thought–rather hoped–but she chalked it up to her eyes playing tricks on her. It was dark, with only the occasional green grow, and her desperation tinted her vision.

Koriand’r’s feral cries echoed throughout the small cell, combining with the sharp clanging on the metal door to create a cacophony of painful noises that practically assaulted Barbara’s ears. She put her hands to her ears to try to stop it from getting too deep into her skull, but even then she could still hear Koriand’r screeching like a banshee and the metal reverberating with each strike.

“Kori…” Barbara said again, gritting her teeth.

She either didn’t hear or didn’t listen. Through the screams and punches, Barbara thought she could hear voices outside of the cell. Gordainians, no doubt, coming to see what all the ruckus was about. They had most likely double or tripled the guard when they heard her screams, and not Barbara could only picture a whole hoard of them waiting outside for them, ready to strike the second the door came down.

If it comes down, Barbara reminded herself.

But then again, seeing as how the door was already dented, it might actually come down quicker than she realized.

With another punch, the hinges groaned and creaked, metal breaking and curling, and straining to hold together. Despite everything, Barbara felt a smile creep onto her face. She knew the mess that waited for them just outside that door, she knew the hell they would have to fight through, she knew all of this…and yet she felt a glimmer of hope just seeing Koriand’r knock the door down. 

My Princess, she thought for the first time since leaving Earth. 

Koriand’r slammed both her fists at the door, a explosion of green starbolts shooting from her hands, and the door came down with a loud, thunderous fall. Barbara rushed forward, ready to fight the Gordainians who all stood outside, but stopped, tripping and falling forward on her face. Her ankle was still chained.

Koriand’r flew towards them all, her chain snapping almost immediately, leaving Barbara alone in the cell. Barbara watched on helplessly as Koriand’r fought them, all spears and starbolts and war cries. She rolled herself over and struck at her ankle chain, but nothing seemed to do. She cursed the fact that she hadn’t worn any bobby pins that day, otherwise she could have picked the lock.

She yanked her foot forward, trying to snap it the same way Koriand’r had done, but it wouldn’t even budge. She had only weak human muscles and fragile human skin. And she’d been stripped of her weapons, her belt, her cape and cowl, and even her gloves and shoes. 

She pawed up the side of her leg, searching for a knife that might have been left. But she hadn’t felt it when she awoke, and she didn’t feel it now. They had taken her boot knife, the one she had kept strapped to her thigh and the one she hid beneath the cushioned sole. 

Barbara sighed, defeated.

“Move,” she heard Koriand’r say behind her.

Barbara turned around to look at her. “What?” she asked, but before she could even get the entire word out, Koriand’r shot at her, green starbolts rushing past her face and destroying the chain that bound her foot. Barbara scampered away from it, clambering to her feet and running alongside Koriand’r.

She put a hand to her cheek, where the scorching heat still lingered. At least her hair hadn’t crisped.

“Where are we going?” Barbara asked her as they ran through the halls, firing at the Gordainians and barely managing to escape them all. Koriand’r pulled Barbara to the side, kicking open a metal panel on the wall, and threw her inside, her following while firing starbolts all the while. The green energy surged around them, and Barbara walked ahead, weaving through the jungle of wires and cords.

“I don’t think we should be in here,” Barbara thought to herself as she examined the cables. “These things look like they could electrocute us at any moment.” Her eyes lit up as a thought struck her. “I have an idea,” she told Koriand’r, putting a hand on her arm. 

Koirand’r looked at her and nodded, clearly having no doubt that it was a good idea. Why would she? After all, she and Barbara had known each other for over a year, and Koriand’r knew all her ideas and plans were good ones. Even when they failed, she had a backup plan behind that one, and another one behind the backup plan as well. And in the end they always prospered.

“Tell me quickly,” Koriand’r whispered.


	4. Chapter 4

When the starbolts had stopped raining down on them, the Gordainians entered the closed off vault. Cables and wires and electric light bathed them as they tentatively stepped forward, into the mess of the power bands. 

“This reeks of a trap,” one of them said.

“What would you have us do instead?” another one answered.

“Keep your eyes open, keep your ears alert, keep your noses sharp,” came a voice that dwarfed them all. “I know those two are in here, and I want them both.”

“But why?” came a question from behind the head Gordainian. “We now know who the Princess is; she is the one dressed in purple, with the ability to fire green starbolts at us. What purpose does the one dressed as a bat serve?”

The Gordainian glared, and stomped forward, puffing their chest out and baring their teeth. “Do not question me,” they hissed, and the questioner shrunk back down, muttering an apology.

“Keep your eyes open!” they commanded. “And step lightly. I fear something is amiss.”

They all followed the orders, weaving through the jungles of electric wires with their three-pronged spears at the ready, their footfall barely tapping up against the metal floors. Every Gordainian spread out, each finely weaving through the massive electric room, scanning the dark for any sign of orange hair or green eyes. 

In the distance, a lone wire was cut, exposed and sparking with little pinpricks of blue light. 

A hissing sound came from one of the mouths, and a hand gesturing for the nearest to come look at the sight. The two of them huddled together.

“You think they went this way?” asked one of them.

“So help me, I do believe so.”

Crouching down, the two approaching the cut wire, keeping clear of the blue shocks that still sparked out around them. They looked every which way, trying to see something. Anything. In the darkness, but all was in vain. Only the thick ropes upon ropes of vine-y cables and cords and wires. Nothing.

“They must have come this way,” they hissed.

“Keep going forward,” the other one hissed back.

There was a grumbling, but they did as told. The Gordanians surged forwards, spears at the ready, eyes bright with alert. A few sparks cracked at them, but aside from that, everything was silent.

Barbara and Koriand’r were hunched down in hiding, both of them pressed up against one another. It was too close for comfort, but then again, in a situation like this there was no comfort. Barbara could feel Koriand’r’s hair tickling her skin, and her knee painfully jarring into her back. She said nothing of it. She was a bat; she felt no pain. So she didn’t squirm or try to reposition herself. Her focus was on the task at hand.

The Gordainians advanced...closer and closer...

Just a little bit more, Barbara thought to herself. Desperately she waited for them to get to the perfect spot. It seemed to take an eternity but finally she had them right where she wanted them.

Barbara connected the two cut wires that she held in her hands and an electric shock ran through the room.

Bright blue light lit up the darkness, and the dripping water sizzling with electricity. Barbara heard screams and hissing and what she assumed to be Gordainian curses. She held the wires together for as long as he dared, prolonging the electrocution of the soldiers, before daring to pull Koriand’r off her feet and then burst through the crowd into the hallway again.

“We need to find an exit,” Koriand’r said.

“Not without my escrima staff,” Barbara replied.

“Your escrima staff?!” Koriand’r said incredulously. “We need to escape. They will recover quickly and I do not wish to be around when their senses have been regained. We need to go! Now!”

“You don’t understand.” Barbara shook her head. “That staff was...is...important to me. My best friend gave it to me before I left Earth. I can’t just leave it behind.” She thought of Richard’s smile right before she departed, of his smile when they had said their last goodbyes, of his smile when he gifted her one of his own escrima staffs, saying she was perfect to wield it. She also remember the pride and thankfulness when she first held it in her palm, clicking on the electricity and watching the volts near the top spark and flicker.

“Oh...alright...I suppose if this is a necessity then we should put it in our priorities!” Koriand’r said with a huff. “But please! Let us find it quickly!”

Barbara nodded and took off for the main room, where she had first had it taken away. From there, it was only a matter of map searching and reenactment to find where her staff had been taken.

“There!” Barbara said, pointing to a heavily armored door. “Now to get into it...”

“Leave that to me,” Koriand’r said, and aimed her green starbolts at the door. One starbolt, then another, then another, until it was raining from her fists and pounding on the door, but still it was only making the slightest of dents. 

“Hurry! Hurry!” Barbara hissed, hearing the agitated--scratch that, infuriated--shouts grow louder.

“I am working on it,” Koriand’r said, her voice strained from the effort. The voices came closer. With a war cry, Koriand’r beat her fists upon the door, sunk her fingers into the hardened metal, and pulled the door completely off its hinges. 

Inside was a wealth of weaponry...no doubt from their other prisoners of war.

“Quickly find your staff!” Koriand’r told her. She spun around, green starbolts aimed at the door, guarding Barbara as she searched.

Barbara searched quickly. It shouldn’t have been that hard to find, but it was. She walked down the jumbled corridor of the weapons stored, searching for a long, black metal staff with stream-lined metal conductors and slim black buttons on the side. After a minute of searching, she thought that maybe the Gordainians had taken it and broken it...or maybe took it to use themselves. Surely, with their electric spears, it would make a good addition to their armory.  
But Barbara found it, at last, and rushed back to Koriand’r, who was holding the Gordainians back away from them.

“I have the staff,” Barbara shouted at her, running up to her side.

“That is good, my friend,” she replied. “You must use it now if we are to escape from their numbers.”

Barbara nodded, quickly surveyed the scene, and took a deep breath. I am a Bat, she reminded herself. “Cover me,” she told Koriand’r, and without another second of hesitation, she leapt forward, into the range of fire, wielding her escrima staff as boldly as ever.

Shocks of electricity danced through the air as Barbara struck one down, then another.

They knew that they could not take down every single Gordainian that came their way, but they were able to break free and escape, and in the end, that was all that mattered.

“Here!” Koriand’r said, pointing and grabbing onto Barbara’s arm--roughly enough to bruise. “This is our way out of the Gordainians’ ship!” Barbara didn’t ask any questions; she followed Koriand’r.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think.


End file.
